Mystery In White - A Christmas Crime Story is part of a terrific new series published by The British Library. The series brings back many authors from the 1930's and 40's, whose crime and mystery novels have been unpublished since they first came out. One of these is J. Jefferson Farjeon, who wrote more than sixty novels critics found unsurpassed for the day.
The Snowbound Train.
Various characters are travelling on a train through the countryside, when it is stopped in its tracks by the heavy snowfall. As it will be hours until they dig it out, a suggestion is made they leave the compartments and venture out towards the next, nearby station on foot. David and Lydia, along with her father, wander out into the winter woods, and are the first to discover the house - doors open, fireplace alight, a boiling kettle and tea laid - completely abandoned. There is even a room upstairs with a locked door - which is unlocked when they try it later, an empty room! When the others from the train arrive, the snow is halfway up the windows and there is nothing else to do but settle in and enjoy Christmas best they can.
It's quite like The Mousetrap in that all the action takes place in the house, spooky and cut off from the world, snowed in for the holiday. There are some family secrets revealed, intrigue for David and Lydia, inheritance, and not only three murders along the way, but a murderer with a knife stalking them outside in the night! Amongst the passengers there is a chorus girl, an elderly bore, two sets of fathers and daughters - and one passenger who has been very observant throughout, a Mr. Edward Maltby of the Royal Physical Society. If you follow his conclusions, the twisted tale and all its herrings will be revealed.
Quite a good mystery if you like them from the 1930's. A little stagy and stilted, but full of interest. I was disappointed they weren't trapped in the train longer, and by the halfway point, all the clues had been distributed and it was a case of explanations, motives and results for the rest of the novel.
If you are a classic mystery fan, those in the British Library series are of interest to look out for.
1937 / Tradeback / 256 pages
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